Healthy Eating. - Belton,MO

I've recently begun making the change to healthier eating, too. What helps me the most is to plan the meals for the entire week, make my grocery list accordingly then hit the store.

I stumbled on a website called weelicious.com. It's a SAHM that has put out a cookbook and posts new recipes almost daily using great ingredients. I've gotten a lot of good ideas from her site.

Good luck!

When I eased my family into it...I mixed regular pasta with wheat pasta, then slowly decreased the regular pasta until it was all wheat. Plus, a nice flavorful olive oil on it helped. I bake desserts half white flour and half wheat flour, until one day they didn't notice it was a delicious dessert with all wheat flour. Every meal there has always been vegetables, but we also snack on raw fruits and veggies. Cut back on their favorite chips (doritos, funyons etc.) to veggies sticks and if they want those kind of chips its not very often at all. In my family we don't eat pork or beef at all. We only eat chicken, turkey and seafood. No fried foods. If it has to be breaded its with wheat flour and its baked on a rack to remove oils. My family loves any kind of raw salad, from regular to zucchini sliced in strips seasoned with divinci olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, fresh garlic chilled and served with grilled turkey mignon. We have baked spaghetti squash with baked turkey meatballs. One day a week is usually salmon night. If they want pizza I make it homemade with wheat crust, fresh tomatoes, turkey pepperoni, chicken italian sausage etc. Hot dogs (wheat buns with chicken gouda sausage), lasagna made with wheat noodles, chicken or turkey meat, layers of spinach...etc. Overall, its easy to switch to healthier eating as long as the food is delicious and not a shock to them. Just remember, ease them into it gradually and one day the entire family will eat healthier. Trust me it works now my husband and teen feel guilty if they even look at a bag of chips or candy bar because they like feeling healthy and looking great.

Make a list of your family's favorite foods, casseroles, menu items. Do you like macaroni and cheese, or the casseroles that combine chicken and a can of condensed soup and another ingredient or two? Do you like comfort foods, Mexican foods, etc? What are some simple meals you enjoy (tomato soup and grilled cheese, etc)? What are some meals you enjoy cooking or want to learn to cook?

Don't think about healthy quite yet, just get the list together.

Now look at your list. Look for ingredients like processed artificial cheese products, canned (salty, overprocessed) foods, seasoning packets, jars of pasta sauces, jarred or dried gravy or sauces, stuff like that.

Try making simple substitutions. For example, let's say your family likes spaghetti. If you buy plain ordinary spaghetti and a jar of sauce, try buying a spaghetti that has some fiber or whole grain in it. And instead of the jar, make a simple sauce by sauteeing a chopped onion and extra lean ground beef, adding a couple of cans of pure crushed tomatoes, some fresh oregano and basil. You haven't changed your menu, you've changed the ingredients to make the whole meal fresher and lighter and healthier.

You know those commercials on tv where they tell you to pour a can of soup over chicken? Get some fresh mushrooms, saute them in a little canola oil, chop them and add them to a simple homemade white sauce, made from butter, flour, and low fat milk. Now instead of the dozen or so ingredients on the can, you have 4, and you can pronounce them all. Use that to basically go with the chicken recipe from the commercial.

Try "make your own salads" where you set out bowls of salad fixings, and they can build their own. You can add grilled chicken that you cut into strips, and hard boiled eggs, for a salad with protein.

A simple white sauce is easy to make, and once you learn it, you can make Mexican cheese sauce with real cheese, and a different cheese sauce for homemade macaroni and cheese, and any flavor of soup that replaces the stuff in the cans.

Good luck!

I find it easies to shop for produce every 3 days and purchase in small amounts. It sounds crazy but we have a sprouts near our house and I pop in there every couple of days and just buy enough for 2-3 days. I usually spend very little each trip because I'm only buying 1 or 2 of a few items. Then I always have new produce and I'm excited about it each time I get home and am looking for ways to incorporate it in our meals.

We also LOVE the fresh frozen veggies you steam in the bag. We eat lots of grilled proteins with veggies.

I would say the VERY first step to healthy eating is making a strong effort to drink plenty of water. I drink about 100oz of water per day. Drinking water is the foundation for healthy nutrition. If you are drinking water chances are you are not drinking the bad stuff.

I just don't buy the "lazy" foods and then they are not in the house. You can make homemade pizza dough, let it rise once and freeze it in batches. You can make a big pot of brown rice and freeze it in ziplocks to use later. You can buy frozen veggies in case you have run out of fresh - so your freezer is stocked. I just try to cook from scratch every day. I like to cook and have a lot of practice so it is easy for me, but I know that seems overwhelming to some people. Plan out 4 or 5 meals for the week and go buy the ingredients. Even if you do a lazy dinner once or twice you are still doing better, right?! We end up eating leftovers once a week too. Or we eat our leftovers for lunch. Dinners and side dishes we love: fish tacos, baked or grilled salmon, stir fry, ground beef tacos, enchiladas (I make homemade red sauce - very easy), spaghetti, shrimp fettuccini, pesto on baked zucchini, cauliflower curry, baby back ribs, roast chicken, homemade chicken noodle soup, squash soup, lasagne, stuffed shells, quinoa salad, couscous, brown rice salad, chicken sauted with veggies (like red peppers, olives, onions), pork loin (baked or grilled, with a sauce), pork chops and potatoes, linguine with clam sauce, quiche, fritattas (yum!), green chile casserole, crock pot roasts, crock pot chili, crock pot chicken with salsa, crock pot pulled pork. Every night we have a veggie with our main course...and usually a side dish. On nights where there is just no time I will resort to pizza or a quick and easy frozen dinner from Trader Joes (like a chinese chicken meal you heat up and cook your own rice). If I roast a chicken, I get a big one and I use leftover chicken for the next night's (or 2) meals.

Stick to the outside of the store (make a cicle) they outside are of the store goes something like this. Bread, produce, meats and cheeses, and the dairy. We don't go down most of the actual aisle. We go down one to get brown rice and pasta, and I do use alot of canned tomatoes. I disagree with staying out of the frozen food section. I get most of my veggies frozen. Unless you eat the veggies raw frozen are just as healthy as fresh and alot cheaper. And cooking healthy does not have to be hard. One of my easiest meals is throwing a couple lean pork chops or a whole chicken in the crockpot with a bunch of veggies. Vegatarian spilt pea soup and navy bean soups are pretty easy as well. you can also go online and search for healthy versions of foods you already enjoy.

I suggest taking baby steps. If planning a week's worth of meals is overwhelming, then start by doing two or three days at a time. Find a couple of new recipes that look simple and tasty. cookinglight.com is a great resource.

When you're out shopping try to buy as much whole, real food as possible. Stay out of the frozen aisle and away from the boxed stuff. Potatoes, pasta, rice and beans are all inexpensive bases that you can add veggies, meats and seasonings to.

Once you get into a healthy lifestyle it really does become easier and more tasty, plus there is a lot of creativity involved which personally keeps things interesting for me. Good luck and bon appetit!

My two and a half year old is basically a self proclaimed vegetarian. She LOVES fruit and veggies but is not big on meat, and my husband and I love a good steak. :) We eat a lot of beans to up her protein. She LOVES all kinds of beans and there are tons and tons of ways to throw them in things she will eat. They way she eats has caused me (a very very picky eater) to really step out of my comfort zone and find that there are some things I thought I would hate that I really enjoy.
Here is a list of good proteins http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/good-protein-... though I wouldn't do the shakes and suppliments on a young child.

Good job for wanting to eat and feed your family healthy foods! Some of the switches are really easy:
toss margarine and crisco--only use real butter
toss anything with trans fats & hydrogenated oils (TONS of foods have this stuff) but if you read the ingredients on all the labels, you should be able to find something that you can buy...example: taco shells (there is ONE brand at my local grocery store that does not have fake fat in them) and sour cream (again, there is only one brand that lists only "cream" as an ingredient...the others list about 10 ingredients), and peanuts: many many peanuts have trans fats (gross!) but if you look carefully you should be able to find a jar where the only ingredient listed is peanuts. The first couple shopping trips might take a little longer, but once you know what you're looking for, it'll go much faster. :-)
Some of our favorite meals are white chicken chili, spaghetti (with whole wheat pasta & organic pasta sauce), tacos, Subway (this month all footlongs are $5!!!), parmesan crusted chicken, & simple things like grilled cheese (with real cheddar), tuna sandwiches (Trader Joe's offers pure tuna and the only mayo I've ever found that doesn't use preservatives or high fructose corn syrup). Good luck with the transition!! :-) And remember, an apple a day keeps the doctor away! :)

Hello J., you know what I've done? I've got a menu of our meals posted on my refrigerator. Plan out a menu for yourself, that way you don't have to think about what you're going to eat day in and day out. Unfortunately I have to go to the supermarket or green grocer a little more than once a week at times to cook the meals I've planned. Since vegies are easy for you, stick with them as your side dish. As far as meat is concerned, I don't give my kids anything like t-bone steaks or veal etc. I usually go with chopped meat. It's easy to eat especially for the kiddies. I also add mashed squashed into it, so they could get their fiber. They don't realize it's in there. Make burgers out of them, or just cook it in a pot with tomato sauce (add a bit of salt, mashed squash, a little water, and the sauce) leave to simmer for 40 minutes. You can also make stuffed tomatoes, and aubergines, stuffed squash with lemon sauce etc, using minced/chopped meat. Switch to olive oil. You'll never go wrong with it. It even tastes better with eggs, wheather omlettes or boiled. I wouldn't mind if we all devoted some time on this sight to share some recipes. I'm always looking for something different my kids will like. Hope I helped.

Don't tell them it's healthy. Also Instead of doing 5 heathly meals a week, start slow with 1 or 2 meals per week. Also what kind of healthy food are you using, somethings like All wheat products and fish are easier for kids to like than others. Feel free to message me if you would like some recipes!